After dressage I had just shy of an hour before stadium and this is where my time management wasn’t so hot. I went back to the barn and got Eeyore untacked and settled in his stall to dunk his hay to his heart’s content. Meanwhile I changed into my jumping shirt and vest so I could go straight over to xc after stadium. And then I sorta had no idea when to get him tacked back up and head to stadium warm up.
I knew I wanted to get him over a few fences but I also knew that he was breathing a little harder than I’d have liked after our hard dressage warm up and the test. As usual I got on way too early and then ended up sitting on him forever waiting for them to reset stadium for my division. Trainer met me at warm up again but didn’t want me to start riding him until the first person in my division went which meant a lot of standing around.
We warmed up over the small cross rails and one vertical they had set up in an L configuration turning the four fences into a small course. He was game and very happy that this whole weekend wasn’t flat work only. After more waiting, it was finally our turn to head in.
So…..I made a really big error right off the bat. I walked in when the steward told me to but then Wyatt started talking to me at the rail and I got distracted and didn’t hear the horn. Thankfully they realized I was looking confused and honked it again because had I been eliminated for that I wouldn’t ever live it down.
Once I had Eeyore pointed to fence 1 he was on fire. He decided that he had this figured out and took off. Not sure where the energy boost came from but after fence 4 he felt like he was due a good gallop and I had to yank hard to get him turned to the bank.
I made him trot the bank to get his head screwed back on and he handled it no issues at all. The horse loves banks. Really the most fun I had all weekend was doing that bank up, down then fence 6 combo. It rode really well and was a complete blast.
He thought he was the bomb after that and once again snatched the bit and took off after 6 and 7. It was a sharp left turn to the oxer at 8 and as we left 7 I really thought we were going to blow right past the turn. He ran through my half halt so the Big Orange Butthead got brought to a trot to turn the lights back on in his head.
The oxer at 8 was no issue at all but then we came around to 9 which went right by the dressage arena he previously had zero interest in looking at when we were actually in there. All of a sudden it was the most interesting thing on the planet and he stopped paying attention to what was in front of him.
This led to our first rail on course. Womp. Had we even had a hope of not being in last after that dressage test, we certainly were after that rail came down. It did serve the purpose of waking his butt back up as 9b came up and he cleared that and cantered to the end without an issue.
I left shaking my head at that darn careless rail, but Trainer AB shrugged it off saying that he is typically pretty careful and was distracted so don’t even worry about it. She was really happy to see him say yes to everything, praised my decision to trot where I did due to his behavior, and was thrilled that we did the bank. She sent me off to cross country warm up with a smile.
The Roaming Rider 
Sounds like a great, confident ride! So fun! Who cares about one bogey rail, anyway!
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At this height we really shouldn’t knock anything down. He can walk over them but I think we were both a bit distracted and tired by the end
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Your round looked GREAT! Nicely done!
I found it fascinating that there was a bank in SJ. But see there was a SJ option, which I would have taken, since June gets a little too excited on the down banks still… But it’s fun they had that! I can’t wait to see your xc recap!
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Tadpole had an option. I’m not sure the other divisions did. It was a lot of fun and most everyone I watched handled it well. I think it was there because xc only had a bank for training and prelim.
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i am loving how much you are enjoying this. well done on getting it done – and hey if you left all the rails up youd have nothing to improve on for next time 😛
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Always room to improve!
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Congratulations. You rode him really well in that. It looks like a lot of fun. Too bad about the rail but it was really like he didn’t see it.
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He didn’t see it at all. Between me pulling and him looking in the dressage arena it came up and he had no clue it was there. He will learn.
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Yippee! That looked like a wonderful round! You rode really smart, and when he got to fast, you set the pace again and got it all done. Congrats! So excited for you!
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It’s been a newly developed feature that my brain stays engaged and functional when jumping. It used to go numb so I’m pretty proud I did anything but cling to him in the fetal position.
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His cuteness with that bank is too much!
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He LOVES banks. Not sure why but he really really does
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You survived! YAY and rails smails. HA Remus gets loooky sometimes and misjudges where his feet go!! Glad you had fun. I find it odd that they had you do the BN test but then the stadium jumps were tiny and yet the course was challenging and had a bank in it? And no spoilers but the cc only had four jumps?? Just scratching my head at the organizers a bit!
Glad you did well and had fun…..;)
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It was a bit odd to see how small they made the jumps for a supposed 2’ division. There was a vertical that went beside the bank for my division but the bank was so much fun!!! As for xc they did add a 5th but yeah….it was a very long course that started and ended in the same spot as the other divisions but then only had 5 jumps where everyone else had 16.
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you did it and that is ALL THAT MATTERS Everything else is gravy!! 🙂 HAHAHA
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Ok so I’m reading this all backwards bc I couldn’t wait for the grand finale lol, but omg that show jump course is amazing! Can you believe I’ve still never actually seen a down bank in competition before?? And you got one your very first 3-phase!! Talk about “achievement unlocked!” Congrats 😉
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Hahaha…that’s ok! It’s more exciting reading it this order anyway. Dressage is boring HA!
Really?? No down banks in all your shows even at Novice? I’m truly shocked at that. The up, down, cross rail was my favorite combination of the entire weekend. I wished I could go do it again!
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The bank complex is so cool! I’ve only ever seen something like that at that facility- typically SJ does not include that. Go you and E!
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Yeah I’ve never seen a bank in SJ anywhere else and it sorta makes me sad. I really liked having that
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I agree with Eeyore – Banks are the best 😛 Glad he found his go button and felt refreshed and said yes to everything you asked!
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Banks are really fun. Or at least tiny ones are
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